1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a reader/writer which communicates with a contactless integrated circuit (IC) card by using electromagnetic waves to read and write data from/to the card, and a management system for managing vending machines by transferring data between the reader/writer and each vending machine through the card.
2. Description of Related Art
Vending machines sell commodities or products such as cans of refreshing drink, packages of cigarettes and the like. To manage the vending machines for stock management, commodities supplementation and the like, a service man of a managing agency such as a dealer circulates among the vending machines to collect stock data of commodities from the vending machines. In this case, because received moneys are held in each vending machine, it administratively comes into question that a service man opens a door of the machine without permission of an owner of the machine to collect stock data of commodities from the machine. the machine.
To solve this problem, Published Japanese Patent First Publication No. S62-118493 (1987) discloses a stock management apparatus for vending machines. In this apparatus, a service man collects stock data of commodities from a vending machine through an integrated circuit (IC) card without opening a door of the machine. More specifically, a service man possesses an IC card and a reader, and the machine is equipped with a reader/writer for communicating with the card to read and write data from/to the card. When the service man inserts the card into the reader/writer of the machine, stock data of commodities in the machine is automatically written into the card, and the service man takes out the card from the reader/writer. Then, the service man inserts the card into the reader to transfer the data of the card to the reader. The service man supplies various types of commodities to the machine on the basis of the stock data displayed on the reader.
Recently, consumers or customers have possessed contactless (or non-contact) IC cards (i.e., electronic money cards) having an automatic cashing function such as Edy cards used in Japan, Suica cards used in Japan and the like. Further, consumers have possessed portable telephones having an electronic money function. The consumers purchase commodities from vending machines by using contactless IC cards or portable telephones. In this case, a reader/writer for the card is built in each vending machine to communicate with the card to read and write data from/to the card. When a consumer makes his/her contactless IC card or portable telephone approach the reader/writer or inserts the card or telephone into an entry of the reader/writer, the consumer can purchase an article of commerce.
In case of a management system for vending machines, a service man holds a contactless IC card and a handy reader/writer (i.e., handy terminal) to manage or maintain each of vending machines. When the service man makes the card approach the reader/writer of the machine, stock data of commodities in the machine is automatically written into the card. Then, the service man inserts the card into an entry of the handy terminal and causes the terminal to read the stock data from the card. Further, the service man can transfer data (e.g., negative data indicating cards inhibited from being used for the vending machine) necessary for the machine from the terminal to the machine through the card.
In this data transfer between the machine and the terminal through the card, electromagnetic waves are outputted from the terminal to the card to transfer data between the terminal and the card, and other electromagnetic waves are outputted from the reader/writer of the machine to the card to transfer data between the machine and the card. Therefore, when the reader/writer of the machine and the terminal are disposed close each other, electromagnetic waves outputted from the reader/writer of the machine and electromagnetic waves outputted from the terminal interfere with each other. To prevent the waves from interfering with each other, it is required to dispose the reader/writer and the terminal away from each other by a predetermined distance such that each of the reader/writer and the terminal is placed out of a communication area of the other one.
However, a volume of data to be transferred between the machine and the terminal is, for example, equal to tens kilo bytes which is almost equal to a data capacity of a several number of IC cards. Therefore, when the service man transfers data between the terminal and the machine through one card, the service man is required to repeat a data transfer between the terminal and the card and a data transfer between the machine and the card many times while repeating the detachment and attachment of the card from/to the terminal and the movement of the card between the terminal and the machine. This data transferring work is very troublesome, and it takes a long time to transfer data between the terminal and the machine. Therefore, the service man often fails to transfer data.
To solve this problem, there is an idea that the terminal itself has a function of the contactless IC card. In this case, it is enough that the terminal is moved to approach the reader/writer of the machine only once. However, the terminal is required to have a hardware such as a frequency conversion and communication control circuit in a reading/writing portion so as to act as a pseudo IC card. In this case, the terminal cannot be used for other apparatuses but be used only for vending machines. Further, a manufacturing cost of the terminal is heightened.